Grim Dawn

We are very excited to announce that another major game system has come online: Crafting!

This system is now available to the public with Build 18, patch notes below.

Development News:We've made significant progress with multiplayer after having to rewrite a lot of the existing code that was originally written for GameSpy (which is shutting down). The last tricky component is designing a system to resolve differences in player's quest progress and quest choices. Allowing people who have made divergent quest choices to play together is particularly difficult but we think we've arrived at a reasonable solution and have begun implementing it. We're currently estimating that multiplayer may be ready in late July but we'll have a better idea once we finish the quest syncing and do some testing to see how well it is functioning.

Two-handed melee weapon animations have been finished and the last of the common item art is almost done. You can expect to see them in the next build, which shouldn't be long.

The lower floors of Steps of Torment will also be included in the next build and introduce a new "Rogue-like" mechanic where a key must be used to enter and then, once inside, portals do not work and the only way out is by death or surviving to the end. New varieties of traps will make reaching the end especially challenging.

The first section of Act III, the Jagged Waste, which leads into Homestead, the Act III "town," is nearly finished but missing quests and points of interest. The basic layout of the survivor enclave in Homestead is done and build-out has begun on the farmland around it. We should be able to show off some early screenshots in the next month or two.

Build 18

Major New Features:Crafting is now available! A new quest that begins in Burrwitch Outskirts will have you choose between two rival blacksmiths vying for control of a sacred hammer. Each blacksmith has their own unique style that will be imprinted upon every item they craft for you.

Over 150 crafting recipes have been added to the game.

The character sheet has been overhauled to provide a much more detailed view of your stats from gear and skills. Offensive and Defensive Ability rollovers now display the chance to hit/crit based on your last target/attacker.

Normal difficulty now has "Veteran" mode, which boosts various enemy stats, notably damage and also increases the number of champions and heroes that can spawn. Veteran isn't meant to be brutally challenging but should be enough to make normal difficulty more interesting for skilled players, while allowing us to balance the default for the average player. Veteran can be turned on and off from the character selection screen. Characters who play through normal difficulty on veteran mode should end up a little better equipped to tackle epic difficulty once it becomes available.

Increased randomization of enemy spawns - a new method of placing spawn proxies allows us to provide much greater randomization in terms of how enemies are distributed. You'll now find that the location of enemies is more random and that they can sometimes appear in much larger and more diverse packs.

Dual wielding of pistols is now possible via skills granted by items. One such item can be crafted with the new blacksmith.

Art:

Improved default lighting in outdoor environments.

Increased the distinctiveness of some enviroments a little bit by adjusting textures, colors, fog, lighting and asset use.

Added challenge mode/hardcore indicator text to upper left corner of game screen.

Always show loot option can now be limited based on item quality.

Riftgate map labels can now be localized.

Improved rendering or korean and chinese fonts.

Added faction indicators to the conversation window. Shows the faction of the npc in the conversation.

Pets now contribute to Monsters/Champions Killed and Greatest Monster Killed.

Game:

Experience formula that determines how much experience is gained from killing enemies has been adjusted to slow down leveling. Based on the results, further adjustment may be required. This change shouldn't affect current character levels.

Compass north indicator is now correctly aligned to world map north direction.

Killing Direni for the Lost Journal quest now has additional rewards.

The Warden's one-shot chest now also always drops a rare crafting material.

Updated the stats on the Ground Stomp and Life Cascade item skills

Chaos Bolt and Fireblast item skills now properly target Overseers.

The Marauder Set's pistols now grant skills which allow you to dual wield them.

my quest log says, talk with angrim in the prison at devil's crossing, yet he cant be found. if i talk to duncan, i say the hammer stays with angrim and when i talk to angrim at the place he is, he says that i should see that duncan uses the hammer to bring justice to cairn and about death legion